EDMONTON, ALBERTA: August 18-2010: Lori Nagy, spokesperson for the Edmonton Catholic schools gave the media a tour of the three new Catholic schools that will open in suburban neighbourhoods this fall. New classrooms with clean desks at Monsignor Fee Otterson located at 1834 Rutherford Road SW on August 18. (Photo by Brian J. Gavriloff / Edmonton Journal) Postmedia Archives

Funding for Alberta’s schools and post-secondary institutions should be tied to performance, not student numbers, the MacKinnon panel says.

The panel, headed by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon, was tasked by the UCP government to take a deep dive into Alberta’s fiscal picture.

In its report, the panel argued that K-12 school funding formulas based purely on student numbers — as opposed to outcomes — “have a number of shortcomings.”

“Linking some portion of funding to school boards achieving strategic outcomes desired by the ministry might create more alignment across districts, promote greater collaboration and lower school board administrative costs,” it wrote.

But “performance” and “strategic outcomes” cannot always be measured, argued critics of the panel recommendations.

“This report is an attack on public education. Make no bones about it,” said Barb Silva, spokeswoman for the Support Our Students advocacy group.

Silva said that while schools and districts that perform well will have strengths in literacy and numeracy, they also have to focus on citizenship, social relationships and building community.

“These are things that cannot be placed on a standardized test,” Silva said.

“Kids are not quality control, they are not products. You cannot measure them with one ruler.”

Silva added that the new funding proposal could leave behind schools or districts in high-need or low-income areas, and reward districts that have strong results in superficial areas.

“This is code for more standardized testing, more teaching to testing and more high-stakes competition,” Silva said.

“It means less equitable funding and more barriers to education funding — undermine, underfund and then privatize.”

Bob Cocking, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association Local 38 for Calgary Public, agreed funding should not be based on competitive standards, particularly performance outcomes.

“It’s scary to think about having to make comparisons. Performance is based on so many things.

“This looks like a U.S. model, where funding is based on performance, and schools in high-needs areas will get left behind.”

The panel also recommended the government work with the education sector to curb spending on governance and administration.

Alberta spends around 25 per cent of its education budget on that line item now, but the panel urged government to bring it closer to the 17 per cent level in British Columbia.

The panel also made similar suggestions around post-secondary institutes, urging the government to lift the university tuition freeze, work with institutions to set an overall direction for the system, and evaluate and “move quickly to address the future” of underperforming universities.

It also recommended reducing per-student funding by encouraging universities to develop a revenue mix less reliant on the public purse.

In short, student tuition and “alternative revenue sources” should be the focus, along with adopting “more entrepreneurial approaches to how programs are financed and delivered.”

The panel argued Alberta spends a comparatively large amount on per-student funding at the province’s 26 post-secondary institutions, but that cash injection hasn’t led to stellar outcomes.

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Take Portage College in Lac La Biche, for example, which a KPMG analysis in the report’s appendix points to as having a completion rate below 40 per cent — the lowest of all of Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.

In fact, the analysis shows the average completion rate is less than 60 per cent at nine of Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.

“Concentrating funding to some institutions rather than spending limited provincial funding over a large number of institutions may be a more effective way of delivering post-secondary education and achieving better results,” the panel wrote.

Finance Minister Travis Toews ruled out shutting down underperforming post-secondary institutions for now, but said he expects the education and advanced education ministers will look at the recommendations with “great interest.”

“We spend an awful lot of money in advanced education per full-time student relative to (other) provinces, so obviously we’re taking a look at that, and all of that will be instructed by the recommendations going forward,” he told Postmedia.

“We want to ensure that our post-secondary institutions are offering programs that result in Albertans graduating with an opportunity to provide well for them and their families, to contribute in our economy and our communities.”

Officials at the University of Calgary refused to comment, calling Tuesday’s report “a set of recommendations from a panel, not actual proposed government policies or actions.”

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"We call it the hummingbird method. We kind of swoop in and swoop out if we have to say anything to the kids, but we really give kids lots of time and space to try to work out things by themselves and try things by themselves."